WILMINGTON, Mass. — Tim Thomas wants to keep his personal life and his professional life separate.

So, of course, he takes to a multi-national social networking site to post his political beliefs for anyone that “likes” his page to read.

Tim Thomas, who famously skipped the Bruins’ White House visit a couple weeks ago and posted his reasoning on Facebook, took to the online giant again Wednesday to let people know what he thinks about a recent healthcare policy involving contraception. Today after practice, he was met by a swarm of reporters with questions about his post.

But Tim Thomas didn’t want to talk about his posts, so he plead “the fifth.” When you’re trying to position yourself as a high-minded expert on politics and history, you probably shouldn’t reveal your ignorance about when you invoke an amendment from the Bill of Rights. There’s no crime in this case, so Thomas can’t “plead the fifth,” unless you consider it a crime that the fantastic chemistry the Bruins have built since they dropped a 3-0 lead to Philadelphia is being put at risk by a me-first goaltender.

Ever since the Bruins made negative history in the spring of 2010, they’ve had an us-against-the-world attitude that paid off last June with the ultimate prize. Now Tim Thomas, by far the biggest reason the Stanley Cup championship drought ended last season, is drawing attention away from the team and hockey and then not answering for his actions.

Here’s my CBS Boston piece on Thomas’ latest go-around with the media after practice today. It should be noted, that Thomas would be within his rights to just not be in the locker room when players are supposed to be available to the media. Instead, he stands there and after answering a couple questions about hocke,y he refuses to answer most of the questions related to his Facebook post. He says his opinions are personal, but they appear on his public Facebook page, which features numerous pictures of him in Bruins gear and playing hockey. These aren’t opinions overheard between Thomas and a friend. He’s made the conscious decision to share his thoughts with the world.

That this contradiction is completely lost on Thomas, and that he’s only bold enough to make controversial statements when he has Facebook to hide behind, just accentuates the notion that Thomas is only interested in garnering more attention for himself and not the issues he’s allegedly passionate about. If he cared so much about big government or mandatory contraception, Thomas would use his spotlight as a star to make the case for or against those issues. Instead, it’s a cat-and-mouse game he plays with the media. He could explain why he’s chosen the middle of the Bruins’ Cup defense to suddenly become publicly political for the first time in his 38 years on Earth. He throws these grenades from afar, which even if head coach Claude Julien and Thomas’ teammates say they aren’t a distraction, if they keep going off around the dressing room they will continue to reduce the amount of hockey being discussed and could throw the Bruins off their game.

If the Bruins are wise, they’ll give Thomas a lesson in Facebook privacy controls. Perhaps they have already, and the goaltender’s ego is just too big to control. He has a right to do as he wants, even if it brings down the Bruins’ attempts at a Cup championship repeat. Thomas can plead whatever amendment he wants, but if this season ends with the Bruins anywhere but center ice with the Cup, and New England believes Thomas proved to be a distraction, he might be pleading forgiveness.

Come on, Matt.
This may be Blueachusetts, and you may want (overrated) KPD’s
nod, but you CAN and do see the legitimate dichotomy present.
Please, one Matt Perreault is enough;
Nightly screeds at Thomas for the whole run, and especially for dodging questions, followed by claims that teammates are raging at TT – but NEVER on the record, is wussy hypocrisy.

Haven’t you ever been in a wedge because a friend, confidant, or authority asked or told you to keep quiet, including the fact that you had to keep quiet?
Or perhaps you just shut up to cover someone else, when you could have pointed at them, and said “I can’t”??

He’s honoring Julien’s request to not talk politics on team acreage, and he’s wrong?

You guys are too long in this 90/10 state,
where the last 1000 days have couched millions of media messages of one bias.
“This is Massachusetts;
we’re tolerant as long as you’re just like us”
It’s not like this everywhere.

One last thing;
The “I just want him to stop pucks” regurgitation?
Well, he doesn’t strictly exist as a Bruin.

Perhaps some of you dudes whining about a man standing firmly by his principles, should recognize the jellyfish your kids see you as.

Something else to consider about this ‘dressing room’ distraction. The bruins have 3 Americans, 17 Canadians, a Czech, a Slovak, a German and a Finn in their roster.
The entire coaching staff is Canadian except for the goaltending coach, their GM is Canadian and the team president is Canadian.

Tim Thomas’ political views are most likely PR and media issue and probably doesn’t resonate much in the room because the majority of the guys aren’t even his nationality. If Tim saw what politics were like for rest of the guys in the room, he’d probably have a heart attack since all of these countries are generally more socialist/progressive than USA.

Jim,
All I’m saying is there are bigger fish to fry politically. I’m personally Catholic and don’t really like the law, but I think there are bigger social issues that need to be dealt with first.

I do kind of wonder what’s going on with Tukka, He really didn’t look good at all, and while I’d say one of the goals was bad, the other two weren’t for sure going in, but goals that can be saved. I really hope we start him on Saturday. Nashville has little to no offense generally, and that should be a nice way for him to get on track.

A lot of people seem to be accusing Tim Thomas of creating an unnecessary distraction in the Bruins locker room with his comments, but the vast majority of that sentiment seems to come from the media and people outside of the Bruins organization. Apparently these people on the OUTSIDE know more about what’s going on INSIDE the Bruins’ heads than the Bruins themselves.

Tim Thomas is right to not address any of these questions in the locker room. The coach and the players have all been saying that they basically keep personal politics and hockey separate. If TT addresses his personal political views in a locker room interview, then he would clearly be mixing politics and hockey and THEN that could be seen as a distraction.

He clearly states that his Facebook posts are from his personal life and hockey is his professional life. He’s not holding press conferences to express his views, his not getting up on stage in a highly public event to make political comments in front of a captive audience, he’s using a Facebook page that people have to seek out in order to read…unless they go to a sports news/blog site and see his comments critiqued by a journalist. Since he’s famous, does that mean he has less of a right to express himself?

the problem isn’t thomas’ political beliefs, or even voicing them. however, the “first they came” business is over the top but even that’s his right. the problem here is that thomas’ refusal to address these things he goes out of his way to state forces the team to address it. he can’t have it both ways. either state your opinion and be prepared to explain it or don’t state it. this again shows a disappointing level of selfishness from thomas.

while i agree with kalman in general on this one, i think it was pretty obvious that thomas was “pleading the fifth” figuratively.

Religion and politics, the two biggest frauds in history, being discussed on a HOCKEY site. That’s awesome. Yes, it’s a hockey player making these statements, but I come here to read about the team and its hockey related news, not this ultimately pointless rhetoric about, in my opinion, two ultimately pointless institutions.
Drop the puck and let me know when this site starts posting and discussing hockey again.

And you guys think Habs fans are hysterical? Thomas expresses his political opinions and some of you are whining about communists and healthcare?

Matt surprised me a bit with this article because I always considered him a rah rah go Bruins go kinda journalist. This issue can easily become a distraction in the room and maybe, since Rask is a strong goalie, could cost Thomas his future in Boston.

This piece brings what might have been a fading topic back to the forefront. If I were Tim’s agent, I’d advise him to concentrate on hockey and not speak to the media at all. I’m not sure if that is permitted within the Bruins organization but this guy is nothing but bad press for the club lately.

Some of you guys are calling the Media and Leftists crazy, which to me are unwarranted statements in this instance. The reason for this is that the way in which Thomas made his statements was public. Seriously, FB can be seen by anyone who tries hard enough and is a method which the government and companies legally screen for employees (because it is a public website and everything you post there is considered public.) Thomas didn’t take any precautions to make it private, which would limit the conversation and make this whole thing a non-starter as MattK suggests. Instead, it’s public preaching because he doesn’t want to discuss why he said those things or start a discussion about it, which usually leads to compromises and a better overall plan. He just wanted to preach. I generally don’t like it when a team member has strong opinions and starts to talk about them, but you can respect them if they act on it. Timmy isn’t acting on it. If he really cares so much, do something about it. He can definitely use his celebrity to bring awareness and affect change, but that only really works if he owns up to it. Even Avery did that, and while I may or may not agree with his position, at least he did SOMETHING other than whine about it. That’s what people really don’t respect here is a whiner. Thomas may also be a winner buy he’s just whining with the best of them right now.

Admittedly, the Bruins may also be censoring him in these interviews because they don’t want this sideshow, but other comments about what he does on FB seem to show otherwise. If I were Bruins management, I’d be pissed too because he’s making something that isn’t divisive (a hockey team) much more so. And he isn’t even TALKING about the issue he’s created, which really generally makes things worse. I’m really hoping Timmy starts making better choices in that regard soon.

If the Bruins are going to go to the SCF this year they will need TT in top form. To be one of hockey’s best goalies you need to be focussed on hockey not politics. Let it go Tim and leave the politics until after you retire. In hockey you can be a game breaker but not in politics. FOCUS!!

I read elsewhere quotes by Rask that eluded to him being frustrated with his playing time even if he gets shutouts. I wonder if it has started to affect him negotively on the ice because he has looked shaky in his last 2-3 starts.

I do not understand how you guys think that Tim Thomas’ political opinion is the reason for the team losing, ever thought it was the defense not backing him up? I’m pretty sure everyone can have their own opinion about politics and not have to explain themselves every word they say. Granted, he should have some back up to why he says what he says, but he doesn’t have to say it to the whole world, maybe that’s why he only posted his opinion on facebook, and not a whole novel as to why he would say it.
If the team doesn’t want to hear about his political opinion they can easily ignore him, it just makes no sense how you think him announcing his political opinion is making them all of a sudden lose? I’m pretty sure he is still making some nasty saves.

I’m pretty sure that all of you who blame him for not talking about statement after practice would be the first ones to accuse him of using Bruins organization’s establishment for political purposes if he was to talk about politics.

For those who ask for TT’s trade: you should watch again yesterday’s game to see who is a DIFFERENCE maker goalie and who is not… at least not now.

Rask had no serious save last night (however I’m not blaming him for loss), on the other hand TT had many key saves from the get-go.

Hey you leftist freaks! Trying to convince yourself and others that TT’s facebook post is a distraction from hockey and potential reason they are losing or will be losing in the play offs is similar nonsense as to accuse anyother worker for failures of their teamwork because of completely non-work related statements.

I guess (hope) that nobody with working brain would even think for a second that for example unsuccessful brain surgery was caused by FB post of one of the surgeons?!

It was communists who persecuted people for their non-work related political or religious opinions and prohibited them from working in their desired work field regardless of their performance at work.

How is this even remotely a distraction? Do you guys seriously think anyone in the Bruins dressing room is concerned with what the ridiculous Boston fans and media are complaining about this week? Are you sure it’s Tim Thomas’s ego that’s out of control here, and not yours? It saddens me that Bruins coverage is quickly going the way of Red Sox coverage in this town. But with the team’s recent success and the influx of bandwagon fans, I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me.

Here’s a crazy suggestion: why don’t you talk Bruins when you’re there to cover the Bruins, and send him a Facebook message if you want to talk to him about Facebook?

I stopped reading when you called Tim Thomas a ‘me first goaltender”. (Have you ever watched him play?)

Need I remind you that the Presidency is not a Monarchy. The history books are going to look back at this pivotal time in America and they will record who stood up and those who didn’t. Tim Thomas stood up and it is up to the team to support him (They will because America is exceptional and Tim Thomas personifies it.) Anyway Tim Thomas is the ‘put COUNTRY first goal tender’ and I appreciate it and Thank him.

So anyway, since the media has done such a sub par job (either by design or incompetence) here’s a tip. Try not to offend half your readers or they won’t read any of your work. Sandy McGarrigle loyal Bruins fan.

It’s a good thing Tuuka’s playing so well. Now we can trade him to Chicago for Stalberg! *(sarcasm)*

Really Thomas? Really? Honestly, you’ve been outdone by Sean F*&king Avery who had an opinion and was willing to go out in public and say it to the whole world, and what’s more, he DID something about it!! You’re in plenty position to do the same, so man up and talk about it or adjust your privacy settings.

I also have no idea why this upsets anyone…all employers have to live up to the same standard of healthcare is this really an issue worth drawing attention to?

@Josh I agree!!!!! It can also be noted Thomas is not interested in a dialog in his personal life either!!!

I personally posted one thing on Timmy’s facebook page, and it was very mild, mostly in reference to TT sticking to talking about hockey and that sports/religion/politics don’t mix. It got deleted, then I posted asking why it was deleted. That too was deleted, So I asked two more times why it was deleted, those were deleted and then I was banned from posting. I was in no way shape or form rude or disrespectful. So apparently the freedom of speech only applies to TT and those that agree with him, at least on his page.

So you see, either in public or private Thomas isn’t interested in a dialog, he only wants to preach. That tends to be the case when someone has an opinion but can’t back it up. The fact he thinks he should be able to spout rhetoric but not have to answer for it shows his arrogance.

I am a huge fan and my favorite jersey has #30 on it…. Unfortunately I have lost a lot of respect for the man…

I can’t believe Tim Thomas, and I’m glad people are upset about this. How ironic is it that his post was about taking a stand for religion, then when asked about it he aggressively states he won’t answer the questions or won’t “take a stand”. Tim Thomas is losing his positive reputation by the second around here. Not only are his political views poorly timed and unnecessarily self-centered, but he does it in the most cowardly way I’ve ever heard of. Hiding behind facebook takes no bravery or courage at all. Be a man and answer questions about it if its that important.